True Love chapter 2

Disclaimer: JK owns all characters and rights to those characters.

As Hermione read the newspapers, both muggle and wizard on Sunday morning she was quite unaware that her best female friends were plotting against her. They didn't think of it like that of course. Ginny insisted to the women that it was all in Hermione's best interest as they added the ingredients to the currently green potion.

"Really, what's the harm? Hermione is a grown woman. If she has a crush on someone she might has well kiss him and see if it's meant to be. It's a great way to meet guys. Plus she won't be randomly kissing strangers right? She'll only be kissing guys she's had crushes on." Ginny rationalized.

"Right." Agreed Pansy. "It also prevents her from kissing any married men so there won't be any marriages breaking up over this."

"What about guys who are already dating someone?" wondered Angelina. "What if she kisses George?"

"Technically the potion only protects men who are married, who are bonded. Dating someone doesn't prevent her from kissing him."

"Don't worry! It's not like she is going to find true love with one of our men! That's just silly. Hermione has more sense than that. I'm not worried." Ginny declared.

"Sure, we have nothing to worry about. If she kisses Blaise, I'll just know that it's the potion working and I won't be jealous. All right, we are almost done. Lavender, add the last ingredient and we should see the potion turn red." Pansy instructed.

Lavender added the final ingredient and the women stared at the potion. Sure enough it turned red. Ginny picked up the book with the instructions. "It says here that after 24 hours the potion will be pink and the effects will last for seven days. If we wait another 24 hours the potion will be purple and last for fourteen days. The next day it will be blue and finally clear. Apparently 28 days is the max. It's just a month to the ball so twenty-eight days will do it. It's Sunday so that means we need to get the potion in her on Thursday."

"How are we going to do that? We never discussed that much."

"No problem. I'll invite her to lunch on Thursday and slip it in her drink. Easy." Ginny was confident that it would work. She couldn't wait. She set the potion to stir automatically and adjusted the heat setting before going upstairs to have coffee and muffins.

()()()()()()()()()()()()(

"Thanks for having lunch with me Hermione." Ginny said as she slid into a chair at the Leaky Cauldron. "I think we should do this more often."

"Of course we should. We do see a lot of each other though, so it's not like we have to catch up." Hermione explained.

"No, it's not about catching up, it's about time to have girl talk. Speaking of girls, is that Pansy over there?" As Hermione looked behind her, Ginny carefully put the potion in her drink.

"Hey Pansy!" Hermione greeted her friend. "How are things?"

"Great. Wonderful. It's so good to see you both. It's been a while." Pansy was lying. She had just seen Ginny ten minutes ago when she picked up the potion.

"Do you want to join us?" Hermione offered.

"If you don't mind, I'd love to." Pansy gave Ginny a wink and sat at the table.

"Let's have a toast. To girl talk!" Ginny announced. Three glasses were raised and all had a drink. Ginny didn't want to keep staring at Hermione but both she and Pansy were waiting for some sort of reaction. When Hermione didn't complain about the taste of her drink, they knew all was well. The three friends had a good lunch and were just about to leave when Harry and Ron came into the pub.

"Hey ladies!" Ron greeted.

"Hi everyone," said Harry.

At that point Hermione started feeling very warm. She felt an overwhelming need to kiss both Ron and Harry. She had no idea where that came from. It was completely out of character. She was very good at repressing all urges. She could feel the beads of sweat prickle on her forehead and she started feeling nauseated and feverish.

"Hermione? Are you all right?" Harry had noticed her apparent distress.

"I don't think my lunch agreed with me. I need to get some fresh air. Excuse me. . . " Hermione grabbed her purse and headed for the door bumping into Ron in her haste. At the point of contact, Hermione couldn't take it any more and pulled Ron's face to hers in a searing kiss. Ron struggled against her and kept his lips shut tight, not at all sure what was going on. He was a bit afraid of catching whatever was making her look so ill. Hermione broke away, clasped her hands to her face in horror and ran out of the pub.

"What the bloody hell?" Ron asked.

"I don't know mate. I thought you two were long over." Harry said, confusion clear on his face.

"We are. I don't get it." Ron was still confused as he looked at his sister and Pansy in fits of giggles. "What's going on girls?"

"Nothing. Your expression, it was funny." Ginny laughed.

"Right. You looked terrified Ron. I hope you don't look that way when Luna kisses you." Pansy added. "I've got to go, walk me out Gin?"

"Sure, I've got to be going too. See you Ron. Bye Harry love." Ginny stood up to give Harry a quick kiss and headed out after Pansy.

"Women are weird." Ron said as he finished off Ginny's sandwich.

Pansy and Ginny hurried into Diagon Alley. At Hermione's look of horror Ginny had realized her mistake. She should have told Hermione what they had done so she would at least be prepared. Hermione hated being put on the spot and humiliated. She was instantly regretting doing this to her. They found Hermione sitting on a bench, gasping for air, tears rolling down her face.

"I'm so sorry Hermione." Ginny said, sitting down next to her friend.

"We both are. We did something to you that we thought would be a good thing but now we know it was wrong." Pansy sat down on Hermione's other side.

"What did you do? Something is not right with me and I want to know what it is! I just kissed Ron! I broke up with him years ago, he's happy with Luna! What did you do?"

"It's just a little potion. Nothing harmful." Ginny explained.

"A potion? You gave me a potion? You can't do something like that Ginny! It's illegal, immoral and just so wrong!" Hermione was both sobbing and shrieking at the same time. She hated being out of control. "What kind of potion is it?"

"It's a true love potion Hermione." Pansy began. "It gives you the compulsion to kiss any guy that you've ever had a crush on. Once you kiss him, the compulsion goes away but when you kiss your true love, you'll know it. You'll want to continue kissing him. You won't want to kiss Ron again. He's out of your system."

"Thank Merlin for small favors," muttered Hermione. "I can't believe you would do this to me. I thought you were my friends." The tears were falling down her face. She couldn't understand how her friends could publicly humiliate her and be so cruel.

"We are so sorry. All I could think about was you ultimately finding happiness. Now I wish I had stopped and thought for a little longer. I really did have your best interest at heart."

"I'm sure you did, but that doesn't change how this makes me feel. I'm angry and embarrassed. I don't know how I'm going to explain to Luna why I kissed her boyfriend. She'll hate me." Hermione hiccuped.

"She knows about the potion." Pansy explained. "All of your girl friends do. We made it together."

"All of them? They all agreed to this? Who are we talking about here?"

"Me and Ginny obviously, Luna, Lavender, Parvati, Padma, Katie, Alicia, Angelina, and Fleur. Fleur didn't help with the potion but she was there when we discussed it."

"Oh no, not Fleur! I had a crush on Bill! I can't kiss him!"

"You won't have to kiss anyone who is already married, the potion is geared not to break up marriages."

"How long will this last?"

"28 days." Pansy muttered.

"There is good news!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Oh? And what would that be?" Sobbed Hermione.

"You know that Ron isn't your true love."

"Yes, that's very helpful Ginny. You've just ruined my next 28 days, and possibly the rest of my life. I will never be able to live this down. I'm a normal woman who has had lots of crushes and attractions to guys. Do you realize who I might have to kiss? For the first time in my life I am very glad that certain people are dead."

"Like Professor Snape?" Ginny asked.

"Exactly. Wait! How did you know about him?"

"We all would have had to kiss him." Pansy laughed.

"Oh God. This isn't good. I'm going back to work where I will probably get fired for sexual harassment. I'm very glad most of my co-workers are married or female. I still can't believe you would do this to me. I'm not forgiving you. Ever!" Hermione stormed away from the girls and headed back to the ministry.

"Well, she'll forgive us eventually. She'll need bridesmaids for her wedding." Pansy was regretting suggesting the potion in the first place and now just had to hope things would work out.

"Right. Sure, things will be fine. I'm going to go explain to Ron. See you later Pansy."

Ginny stepped back into the Leaky Cauldron to find her boyfriend and her brother stuffing themselves and talking with their mouths full. Harry had definitely picked up some bad habits after spending so much time with Ron over the years.

"Did you eat my sandwich?" She asked her brother.

"Well you left it."

"Fine, but you are paying for it. Look Ron I have to explain what happened with Hermione."

"She wants me." Ron boasted.

"She really doesn't. At all. Look, I did something stupid. All the girls and I planned it but I shouldn't have gone through with it."

"What did you do Ginny?" Harry asked, a coldness in his voice.

Ginny looked at Harry with a worried expression, not liking the tone his voice took. "I slipped her a potion that causes her to kiss all the guys that she's had crushes on currently and in the past. It's a true love potion. Once she kisses her true love, she won't want to kiss anyone else."

"So every time she sees me she'll want to kiss me? Luna won't like that."

"No, once she's kissed you she won't do it again. Unless of course you were her true love. Which you aren't. Obviously."

"I could be." Ron insisted.

"You're not. Trust me."

"So how long does this potion last?" Harry asked.

"28 days. It will end the day after the ball. My goal of course was to get her a date for the ball, but a perfect date. Her true love."

"She didn't want a date to the ball, she told me herself." Harry argued.

"No girl wants to go to the ball by herself."

"I can't believe you'd do this to your best friend." Harry stood up, picked up his jacket and quickly left the pub. He was angry at Ginny but he found himself also angry at Hermione. He wondered why she hadn't kissed him. Had she never been attracted to him? He knew he wasn't as good looking as some of his friends but he figured there had to be some sort of attraction at one point in their friendship. He had a hard time admitting to himself how much it hurt.

Hermione walked into the ministry hoping to avoid eye contact with everyone. There were several reasons why she shouldn't have come back to work. First of all she had been crying and knew that her nose was probably red and there was a chance she had a little mascara running down her face. Second, she was angry and didn't want to make small talk with any of her co-workers. Third, she may have had the occasional attraction to several of the guys she passed on a daily basis. She was almost successful. Her office was directly in front of her and she only had about twenty feet to walk. She could shut the door and do her job. She'd stay late and leave after everyone had gone. She'd call in sick for the next month and never leave her house. No problem whatsoever. Until she heard a voice.

"Hermione!"

Hermione's stomach flipped over as she recognized Kingsley's voice. Of course she was attracted to him. His regal stature and booming voice made her toes curl. He wasn't her true love, she knew that but she also knew that she would definitely want to kiss him, thanks to this potion. Trying to avoid eye contact, she motioned him to follow her into her office. After shutting the door she looked him in the eye. Sure enough, her body started warming up and all she could think about was his lips.

"Please forgive me and let me explain in a moment." Hermione told him as she reached behind his neck and dragged his lips down to meet hers. Kingsley stood stock still, not sure why his employee who he was rather fond of -but like a daughter - would be kissing him.

"Ok, good. That's over then." Hermione said as she wiped her lips off with her sleeve and handed Kingsley a tissue. She looked at him again and saw that he was in shock. "I'm very sorry."

"Hermione? You know I have always been very fond of you but I've always thought of you more as a daughter, nothing more." He said, clearing his throat.

"Oh, no, I'm not looking for a relationship or anything, I've just been given a potion that makes me kiss anyone I've ever been attracted to. You know, no big deal." She gave a nervous laugh.

"You're attracted to me?"

"You are an attractive man. I've always admired how you carry yourself. Don't worry, it's all innocent."

"So how long does this potion last?"

"A month. Do you think I could take a few weeks off? You know, to avoid several people so I don't humiliate myself anymore."

"No, you may not have a month off. What kind of ridiculous potion is this? Is this dark magic? Do I need to get Potter and Weasley on this?"

"Well, Ron Weasley was my first victim unfortunately. It was my so-called friends Minister. They are trying to help me find my true love."

"I see. Interesting. Well, you will just have to deal with things. You can't hide forever. Besides, it's too busy around here and you already have a few days off before the ball. I can't afford to give you anymore time right now."

"Well it was worth a try."

"Indeed. Goodbye Hermione." He chuckled as he left her office. It was going to be a very interesting few weeks. He couldn't help but be a bit flattered and he stuck his chest out as he walked back to his office, completely forgetting why he had wanted to talk to her in the first place.

Hermione decided the best course of action for her was to sit on her private toilet and cry some more. Kingsley had handled it well, had almost seemed amused. Damn him! Of course everyone was going to think it was funny. If word got out she was sure to have people watching her every move, trying to see if she was going to kiss someone else. She found no humor in it whatsoever. She was just glad that her initial reaction with the nausea and sweating didn't happen again. Maybe she had eaten something funny.